Jim Ross Gives His Thoughts On Kevin Owens & The Smackdown Live Battle Royal

“From my perspective, Kevin Owens was the star of Monday Night Raw as his show opening, in ring promo was excellent and was arguably Owens’ best verbal work since arriving in WWE. His pending WM33 bout with Chris Jericho has show stealing potential and should prove to be a major win for KO at the WWE’s biggest event. Owens is blessed that he’s in a program with Jericho who is as good a performer as WWE is currently featuring.”

Smackdown Live Battle Royal:

“The SD Live, Battle Royal Main Event which ended in a controversial ‘draw’ between Luke Harper and AJ Styles where fans will have to, gasp, wait an entire 7 days to see who will face Bray Wyatt for the WWE Title at Wrestlemania in Orlando. Not overly sure if the complaining fans were miffed about the ‘execution’ of the finish or that WWE decided to extend this story one more week and add more emphasis to the two, finalists especially Harper who deserves this enhanced creative treatment.

I can only assume that some fans were not pleased with the execution as I can’t image how any knowledgeable fan would complain over using a ‘draw’ in a wrestling match to extend a storyline but that’s merely my opinion. I had zero issues with the finish and it extends the storyline one more week plus it will positively enhance Luke Harper’s creative value to WWE. I thought the dialog that was picked up from the referee’s discussing the controversy was lacking and came off as not reality based plus, in hindsight, Daniel Bryan should have been in the ring much faster considering this match was going to award the winner the biggest booking that SD Live can offer any one at WWE’s biggest event. This matter likely speaks to a bigger issue, IMO, that many fans have little or no patience when it come to episodic, creative development much like some younger wrestlers who are seemingly reluctant to add timely pacing and selling to their in ring presentations. However, I’m curious…is Luke Harper a newly minted babyface? If so, what made him become a fan favorite? What did I miss?”